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Fom h Apil 2013 i o indfl mindl.o

from he founders

Something important is happening

in our society today: people are being

mindful. More often. In more ways. And

in more places. In our view, the simple

act of being present has the power to

change everythi nghow we approach

ourselves, our challenges, our relation-

ships, and our communities. We believe

being mindful is an ideaactually, a way

of beingwhose time has come. We

are launchingMindfulto celebrate and

support this growing movement.

Mindfulness is not obscure or exotic.

Its familiar to us because its what we

already do, how we already are. It takes

many shapes and goes by many names.

In his basketball days, former senator Bill

Bradley called it a sense of where you are,

and for many athletes today its being in the

zone. For caregivers, its attentionand em-

pathy. For soldiers and first responders, its

situational awareness. For business leaders,

it might bepresenceorflow. Artists see it as

spontaneity and thinkers as contemplation.

Mindfulness is not a special added

thing we do. We already have the capacity

to be present, and it doesnt require us to

change who we are. But we cancultivate

these innate qualities with simple practices

that are scientifically demonstrated to ben-

efit ourselves, our loved ones, our friends

and neighbors, the people we work with,

and the institutions and organizations we

take part in.

When an ideas time has come, its

part of thezeitgeist, the spirit of the times.

Living mindfully is one such idea. Solu-

tions that ask us to change who we are or

become something were not have failed

us over and over again. Were ready for an

approach that recognizes and cultivates the

best of who we are as human beings.

Mindfulness is not only timely. It also

has the potential to become a transfor-

mative social phenomenon, for these key

reasons:

Anyone can do it. Mindfulness

practice cultivates universal human

qualities and does not require anyone

to change their beliefs. Everyone can

benefit and its easy to learn.

Its a way of living. Mindfulness is

more than just a practice. It brings

awareness and caring into everything

we doand it cuts down needless

stress. Even a little makes our lives

better.

Its evidence-based.We dont have to

take mindfulness on faith. Both sci-

ence and experience demonstrate its

positive benefits for our health, happi-

ness, work, and relationships.

It sparks innovation.As we deal with

our worlds increasing complexity and

uncertainty, mindfulness can lead us to

effective, resilient, low-cost responses

to seemingly intransigent problems.

This mindfulness movement is already

emerging in many places and making a real

difference. In hospitals and doctors offices,

its improving patients health and deliver-

ing better care. In classrooms, teachers are

using it to foster healthier learning environ-

ments. First responders are becoming more

resilient, and trauma sufferers are using

it to heal. In business, mindfulness and

awarenessand yes, kindness and compas-

sionare increasing job performance and

satisfaction. In every sphere, leaders find

that mindfulness practice helps keep their

vision alive in the heat of the moment.

Our mission atMindfulis to support this

movement and all who want to live mind-

fully. Well do so throughMindful magazine

and its digital edition; with our website and

applications that deliver mindful content to

mobile devices; and in conferences, collabo-

rations, and conversations where inspiring

ideas can become the building blocks of a

mindful society.

Mindfulwill tell the stories and cel-

ebrate the heroic efforts of people improv-

ing our world by being mindful. Well share

advice, how-to instruction, news, and

information. Well connect mindful people,

communities, and organizations with each

other. Well help the mindfulness move-

ment deepen and broaden and introduce

this way of living to wide new audiences.

Like all who are committed to a mindful

life, we want the mindfulness movement to

have a beneficial impact on our society.Welcome toMindful. Please come as

you are. As we do our best to bring you

helpful information and stories and create

connections, we look forward to hearing

from you. We want to know your concerns

and insights and learn what youre doing.

Lets be mindful together.

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3/19

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In 1979, Jon Kbt-Zinn rruid hronilly

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lr, Mindfuln-Bd r Rduion (MBR)

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no blueprint,just love


4/19

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Mindful:Did you ever think the work that started in a

modest clinic in a spare room of a hospital in Central

Massachusetts would become so influential?

Jon Kabat-Zinn:In a word, yes. I never thought of

this work as a small thing. I dont th ink of myself as

a big deal, but I always thought of this work as a very

big deal. It wasnt just about thinking that medita-

tion had a modest contribution to ma ke to Western

medicine. MBSR was built on the conviction that the

insights, wisdom, and compassion of the meditative

traditions were equal in import and magnitude to

the great discoveries about human life weve made

in the West. If theres an instruction manual for

being human, then Western science and medicine

have supplied one part of it, a nd the contemplative

traditions have supplied another, the part that has

to do with discovering and cult ivating our deep

interior resources.

My hope was that by start ing a stress-reduction

clinic based on relatively intensive training in mind-fulness meditation and yogaand t heir applications

in everyday livingwe could document how these

practices might have a profound effect on the health

and well-being of individuals. The larger purpose

was to effect a kind of public-health intervention

that would ultimately move the bell curve of the

entire society.

And it grew to the point where we now talk about

mindfulness-based interventions in all sorts of areas

depression, childbirth, education, addiction, to name

just a few.

We didnt have a specific blueprint, but I am very

gratified that so many developments have been

happening on so many different fronts. Its really

a matter of planting seeds. You never really know

what will sprout from these seeds and how they

will spread. Thats the beauty of it. Its based on

not-knowingapproaching the world inquisitively,

with a fresh mind.

If we had come in with a plan, wit h an ideology,

with all the a nswers, I think it would have remained

small. Instead, those of us involved in this work

have paid close attention to just a few essential

elements. One is that mindfulness is not a special

state you achieve through a trick or a technique. It

is a way of being. I have a lot of faith t hat if peoplejust learn how to be in the present through simple

mindfulness meditation, then the practice does the

work of transformation and healing. We do not need

to do it for them. People are so creative and intrin-

sically intelligent that given a chance, they perceive

the truth within their own experience. When I get

attached to something, I suffer, they realize, and

when I dont get attached, I dont.

What else makes MBSR work?

In early 2005, I met Jon Kabat-Zinn at

his home in Massachusetts. I came as

a meditation practitioner and journalist

with a bit of skepticism about MBSR.

I was curious whether the attempt to

bring secular mindfulness to the broader

society could be effective. In a lengthy,

impassioned conversation, I began to be

persuaded of its validity and power, and

as a result we started down on a path of

further investigation that led us to Mindful

and mindful.org.

Since then, weve met scores of people

who are bringing this approach to mind-

fulness into many different contexts and

helping all sorts of people. And Jon and

his many colleagues have just kept on

going, bringing mindfulness into everycorner of life. I returned to Jons home

recently, on the occasion of the publica-

tion of a revised and updated edition of

his groundbreaking book Full Catastro-

phe Living, to talk about his work. Fit-

tingly, we began with a little bit of silence

and then embarked on a stimulating con-

versation about the present and future of

the practice he has devoted his life and

heart to.

Barry Boyce

Editor-in-Chief, Mindful

The eight weeks of the MBSR curriculum offer

reliable protocol that is used in many studies o

effects of mindfulness meditation practice. Peo

who have taught it a lot have seen that it has an

integrity of its own. If they try to switch things

arounda little more of this, a little less of t hat

this out, put this inthey find it isnt as effectiv

Yet its only a framework. Its only as effecti

as what the teacher brings to it and how he or s

holds the space, as we say. It simply will not w

if it is scripted or formulaic. If the teacher does

feel competent in one of the elements, say yoga

doesnt work if they bring in an outside expert

have to get the tra ining and embody it themsel

Everything that is taught has to be lived. Life i

curriculum.

As a teacher, you are trying to convey somet

that cant be conveyed in words. Mindfulness i

heartfulnessyou need poetry as much as pro

What truly makes mindfulness tra ining work i

If the teacher holding the class is profoundly inwith what they are doing and with the people

class in a fundamental way, it will work. If they

not, it will peter out.

The benefits of mindfulness go far beyond stress

tion. Why did you call your program that, and ar

still satisfied with your choice?

I wanted it to speak to universal experience. Ev

body can relate to stress. Its a common Englis

word and a common experience. The science o

stress is proving that it was a good choice. We

out more every day about the negative effects o

stress on the body, on the immune system, on a

and so on. Likewise, t here is a correspondingly

strong interest in how we can develop resilienc

the face of stress, which is a benefit of mi ndful

practice.

You often say that mindfulness is not about atta

benefits or fixing problemsthat its about disco

there is more right with us than wrong with us. Y

stress-reduction program can seem very benefi

ented.

That is an unavoidable paradox. There are trem

dous benefits that arise from mindfulness prac

but it works precisely because we donttry to abenefit. Instead, we befriend ourselves as we a

learn how to drop in on ourselves, visit, and ha

out in awareness.

Its essential when youre teaching mindfuln

to remember this and embody it in your own w

being. People come to a mindfulness course be

theyre in pain or angry or depressed or afraid

one thing they want is to get somewhere else, s

teacher needs to continually convey that mind

ness is not about getting anywhere. The teache

own practice and way of holding him- or herse

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projects, funded by the Gates Foundation, is to study

the effects of computer games that train children in

attention and pro-social behaviors, such as recog-

nizing others emotions.

Many young scientists are now taking up this

field, many with the support of the Mind & LifeInstitutes Varela Grants and summer research

institute, where contemplative practice is integrated

into a scientific meeting. Young neuroscientists and

behavioral scientists are building their careers in

whats now called contemplative neuroscience.

Ten years ago that may well have been a career-

ending choice.

One of the Varela researchers whose work I

admire is Paul Condon of Northeastern Univer

sity. His group designed a study to determine

what different results might arise from trainin

mindfulness meditation and training in medita

that emphasizes compassion. In the study, par

pants received eight weeks of either mindfulne

compassion training or no training at all. After

the researchers set up a scenario in which a stu

participant was directed to sit in a waiti ng roo

with only three cha irs, two of which were occu

After a minute, a fourth person entered on cru

wincing and sighing, and the two people origin

in the room pretended not to notice.

The study measured how many participants

would, during a two-minute period, overcome

bystander effectif others are ignoring someth

so should Iand offer their seat to the person o

crutches. The people trained in mindfulness an

people trained in compassion were both five t i

more likely to give up their seat as the people incontrol group. There was no difference betwee

training in mindfulness and t raining in compa

This raises some very interesting questions,

to my mind it underscores the fact that mindf u

is compassion and vice versa. Certainly, in MB

where people bring every kind of pain imagina

compassion is naturally part of the atmosphere

Almost everything we do we do

or a purpose, to get something

or somewhere. But in medita-

tion this attitude can be a real

obstacle. That is because med-

itation is different rom all other

human activities. Although it

takes a lot o work and energy

o a certain kind, ultimately

meditation is a non-doing. It

has no goal other than or you

to be yoursel. The irony is that

you already are. This sounds

paradoxical and a little crazy.

Yet this paradox and craziness

may be pointing you toward a

new way o seeing yoursel, one

in which you are trying less andbeing more. This comes rom

intentionally cultivating the

attitude o non-striving.

For example, i you sit down

to meditate and you think, I

am going to be relaxed, or get

enlightened, or control my pain,

or become a better person,

then you have introduced an

idea into your mind o where

you should be, and along with

communicates that, and because people are intelli-

gent and inherently mindful, they resonate with it.

At that point, it becomes ordinary common sense.

People often say, I always figured meditation was

something weird and mystical. If only I had known

what it really is I would have started years ago.

Your interest is not just working with medically

defined pain, but with all of lifethe full catastro-

phe, in that colorful phrase you borrowed fromZorba

the Greek.

People say, I came to this program to deal with

my pain. I didnt realize it was about my whole

life! There was a professor I knew from my MIT

days who needed a bone-marrow transplant, and

he showed up at the clinic in Worcester. He said,

I want to learn how to be in relationship with my

mind, so that when Im in isolation in the transplant

unit, I can survive it. After a few MBSR classes, he

said, I feel more comfortable with these people Ivejust met than I do with the colleagues in my depart-

ment. When he asked himself why, he concluded,

This is the community of the afflicted, and we

acknowledge the affliction. The faculty is also the

community of the afflicted, but we dont acknowl-

edge our affliction at all. Later, he was riding the

subway and realized we are all t he community of

the afflicted. It made him feel ext raordinarily free.

If the real benefits take place in the heart and in our

very way of being, why does the scientific work matter

so much?

David Black of theMindfulness Research Guidehas

been gathering information on the number of sci-

entific and medical papers per year on mindfulness,

and the resulting graph is pretty telling. Some-

thing that was not on t he research map at all a few

decades ago is a prime a rea of interest now. These

studies provide the evidence of effectiveness you

need to be respected and adopted in key institutions

in health care, education, social policy, and so on.

But ultimately we do science to understand the

nature of the universeand the nature of the one

who wants to understand the nature of t he universe.

Research that helps us understand the capabilities

of the brain and how to improve them is vitally

important to how we can live well, as individualsand as a society.

The brain science has become very rigorous. A lot

of credit obviously goes to Richie Davidson, in his

lab at the University of WisconsinMadison and the

Center for Investigating Healthy Minds. Their work

is unique in that it focuses on both basic science

and translational research, which takes place in

real-life settings such a s Madisons public schools.

Research on how the brain can be t rained ventures

into areas we wouldnt have dreamed of years ago.

For example, one of the centers really interesting

it comes the notion that you

are not okay right now. I only I

were calmer, or more intelligent,

or a harder worker, or more this

or more that, i only my heart

were healthier or my knee were

better, then I would be okay. But

right now, I am not okay.

This attitude undermines

the cultivation o mindulness,

which involves simply paying

attention to whatever is hap-

pening. I you are tense, then

just pay attention to the ten-

sion. I you are in pai n, then be

with the pain as best you can. I

you are criticizing yoursel, then

observe the activity o the judg-ing mind. Just watch. We are

simply allowing anything and

everything that we experience

rom moment to moment to be

here, because it already is.

ExcerptfromFull Catastrophe Living

by JonKabat-Zinn,copyright 1990 by

JonKabat-Zinn.Usedby permissionof

Dell Publishing,animprintofRandom

House,a division ofRandom House LLC.

All rights reserved.

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School, with his colleagues Mick Krasner a nd Tim

Quill, have been training primary care physicians

in mindful communication. This has resulted in

decreases in emotional exhaustion, depersonaliza-

tion of patients, and burnout among doctors.

I cant say enough about how the role of mindful-

ness-based cognitive therapy is spurring interest in

mindfulness among psychologists and psychothera-

pists, and it has led to some very intriguing research.

On another front in psychology, David Creswell has

been doing work with loneliness in the elderly. All

sorts of conventional interventions have been tried

to reduce loneliness in the elderly, and they just

never work. Have them do things in groups, form

friendships, roast hot dogstheyre still lonely.

He trains them in MBSR, a nd their loneliness dis-

appears. Whats that about?

And outside of health care?

An area where mindfulness is spreading in a trulyimpressive way is education. What could be more

vital for our future than teachers and students

sharing a mindful classroom? Theres the work of

Mindful Schools and Inner Kids, to name just two of

the more prominent groups. There are also federally

funded test sites in several locations, where teachers

are learning mindfulness along with their st udents.

Im really impressed by a manual calledMind-

fulness in Public Schoolsthat just came out from t he

South Burlington Public School District in Vermont.

Its unprecedented that a whole public school system

would support mindfulness to the point of develop-

ing a teaching manual modeled on its own program

for students and teachers.

Another excellent project is the pilot happening

in the Madison, Wisconsin, public schools, led by

Lisa Flook of the Center for Investigating Healthy

Minds. I was just reading the impressive results

reported in the article in Mind, Brain, and Education.

They adapted a form of MBSR specifically for teach-

ers, and among other results, it decreased burnout

and increased self-compassion.

In higher education, something very promising

is a mindfulness-based intervention to help college

students deal with anxiety and a challenging envi-

ronment that has caused them in many cases to go

on medication. It was developed by two psychia-

trists at Duke University, Holly Rogers and Marga-ret Maytan, who present it in a book called Mind-

fulness for the Next Generation: Helping Emerging

Adults Manage Stress and Lead Healthier Lives.

When mindfulness reaches into our institutions of

higher learning, it can have broad societal effects.

Where else do you see mindfulness leading to bi gger

changes?

Many well-known businesses and business leaders

have been bringing mindfulness into their work and

What developments outside the laboratory are you

following?

Its exciting to see how more people in the medical

world are appreciating the mind-body relationship

and fostering participatory medicine, where the

patient is not a passive recipient of t reatment but

a real partner in healing. It marks a sea change in

medical education and practice. For exa mple, Dr.

Ron Epstein of the University of Rochester Medical

When I was in England recently, I spent a w

day in Parliament and visited with Prime Mini

Camerons advisors at 10 Downing Street. Chri

Ruane, a Member of Parliament from a very po

district in North Wales, has been instrumental

bringing mindfulness into public schools there

hes encouraging his colleagues to consider oth

ways to bring mindfulness into public policy.

I also gave the keynote at a daylong conferen

London called Mindfulness in Schools. What I

there brought me to tears. Here were seven-ye

olds addressing 900 people, and they were com

pletely self-possessed talking about their mind

ness practice and what it was doing for them. Y

could tell it was unrehearsed. They just sponta

neously said what mindfulness meant to them.

With all of this interest from so many different q

ters, are there enough qualified people to serve th

growing need for mindfulness teachers?

The price of success is that more and more peo

want something. But of course, mindfulness is

a something. As I said in the beginning, its a w

being, and you usually discover it through som

who embodies it to some degree.

Interest in mindfulness generally, and in MB

and other mindfulness-based programs, is spr

ing around the world at a lightning pace. So in

addition to sowing seeds we need orchards, wh

we are growing things in a more structured an

planned way. That has not been my emphasis, b

fortunately there are people paying a lot of atte

tion to that. At the Center for Mindfulness and

professional training programs all over the wo

under Saki Santorellis excellent direction, peo

are learning how to teach mindfulness in a wa

allows open discovery. The program certifies t

they have been well trained, but of course we c

certify that anyone is a good teacher. Each stud

will always have to judge that for him- or hers

In the future, there w ill need to be many diff

kinds of mindfulness teachers and guides for m

different contexts. Whats needed for educator

differ from whats needed for health professio

and inner city youth. Let ma ny flowers bloom.

The spread of mindfulness into more areas o

life is a multigenerational undertaking. One of

greatest challenges is how we will work with thdigital revolution and the alternate reality it ha

created. Many of us are spending more time on

than offline. We need to navigate this mindfull

it will eat us up. The technology itself is a sourc

endless possibilities but also endless distractio

Were now very good at writing codebut how

good are we at knowing ourselves, loving ours

and making a good world together with our fel

human beings?

Evti tt i tut to b

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leadership, and Ive had the opportunity to meet

many of them, including at the Wisdom 2.0 confer-ence every year. Some politicians, economists, and

policymakers have started practicing mindfulness

and bringing it into their work. Its not many now,

but the ones who are doing it are very passionate

about it. Congressman Tim Ryan, whom I met five

years ago when he did a mindfulness retreat with

me, has become a strong advocate for mindfulness in

health care, schools, the military, and particularly for

veterans. He believes that programs that develop our

innate human capacity to be mindful can make a pro-

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7/19

Fom h Oob 2013 i of indfl mindfl.o

Google changes the brain. Playing

computer games changes the brain. Con-

versing in a compassionate way changes

the brain.

If you half expect this ever-lengthen-

ing list to eventually include, oh, making

matzoh-ball soup changes the brain, you

are not alone. It is true that lots of solid

scientific studies show that the adult

brain can change in response to what we

do and the lives we lead. But they are in

danger of being crowded out, at least in

the publics understanding, by far less

rigorous claims. (The jury is still out on

Google, games, and conversation, butwere pretty sure soup-making wont

make the short list.)

Its a shame to see something as scien-

tifically significant as neuroplasticity

the ability of the adult brain to change

its structure or function in an enduring

wayoverpopularized to the point that it

could start losing its real meaning.

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ind, Change Your Brain, d

outo it id Dvido of

The Emotional Life of Your Brain.

The promise of tapping neuroplasti-

city to relieve suffering is genuine. From

physical therapy that changes part of the

brain so it can do the job of another part

of the brain that has been devastated by

a stroke, to mindfulness-based therapy

that quiets the circuit responsible for

obsessive-compulsive disorder, tech-

niques using the principle of neuroplas-

ticity are already in use by physicians

and therapists. But how far can neuro-

plasticity go?

Perhaps as far as an emotional reset

harnessing neuroplasticity to change

how you respond emotionally to the upsand downs of life. Neurobiologist Rich-

ard Davidson of the University of Wis-

consin, an expert on the emotional brain,

calls it neurally inspired behavioral

therapy. He is talking about a kind of

therapy that identifies the brain activity

underlying an emotional trait you wish to

change, such as a tendency to dwell in

anger, and then targets this brain activity

with mental exercises designed to alter

it. The result is a healthier emotional

style, as Davidson calls it.

This mission is still in its infancy,

but there are hints that it works. Much

of Davidsons research has focused

on determining the patterns of brain

activity that characterize facets of our

emotional style, such as how well we

maintain positive feelings. (Full disclo-

sure: I cowrote Davidsons 2012 book,

The Emotional Life of Your Brain.) People

who are a little familiar with brain struc-

ture might assume that these patterns

occur within the brains limbic system,

an evolutionarily ancient region that

includes the amygdalae, the two almond-

shaped structures that are responsible

for feelings of anxiety and fear.If these patterns were lodged in this

ancient brain region, where our power-

ful survival instincts emerge from, we

would be out of luck. Think of trying to

simply will yourself to be happy or sad,

or any other emotion, with the brute

force of a survivalist. Not so easily done.

I dont know about you, but if Im feeling

miserable and someone tells me to just

cheer up on the spot, I want to slug them.

Fortunately, the brains emotional

circuits are actually connected to its

thinking circuits, which are much more

accessible to our conscious volition. That

has been one of Davidsons most import-

ant discoveries: the cognitive brain is

also the emotional brain. As a result,

activity in certain cognitive regions

sends signals to the emotion-generating

regions. So while you cant just order

yourself to have a particular feeling, you

can sort of sneak up on your emotions via

your thoughts.

This is easier to understand with

examples. Davidson discovered that

people who are resilientable to regain

their emotional balance after a setback

rather than wallowing in anxiety,anger, depression, or another negative

emotionhave strong connections

between the left prefrontal cortex (PFC)

and the amygdalae. The left PFC sends

inhibitory signals to the amygdalae,

basically telling them to quiet down. As

a result, the negative feelings generated

by the amygdalae peter out, and youre

not mired in unhappiness or resentment.

In contrast, people with little emotional

resilience (including those with

depression, who may be shattered by

every disappointment) have fewer or

weaker signals between the PFC and t he

amygdalae, due to either low activity in

the PFC or poor connections between it

and the amygdalae.

Neurally inspired therapy to increase

emotional resilience, then, strength-

ens the left PFC so it sends stronger,

longer-lasting inhibitory signals to the

amygdalae. One way to do this, Davidson

says, is mindfulness meditation, in which

you observe your thoughts and feelings

with the objectivity of a disinterested,

nonjudgmental witness. This form of

mental training gives you the where-

withal to pause, observe how easily the

mind can exaggerate the severity of a set-

back, note that it as an interesting mental

process, and resist getting drawn intothe abyss, he told me. As a result, you

create stronger connections between the

PFC and the amygdalae, and thus fewer

persistent feelings of anger, sadness, and

the like after an emotional downer.

Another way to strengthen the cir-

cuitry that supports emotional resilience

is through cognitive reappraisal training,

in which you challenge the accuracy of

catastrophizing thoughts (I am days

behind in my work; Im going to get

fired). This directly engages the pre-

frontal cortex, Davidson says, resulting

in increased prefrontal inhibition of the

amygdalae.

Davidson has also discovered that in

people whose default mode is a positive

frame of mind and a sense of well-being,

there is high activity in the left PFC as

well as in the nucleus accumbens. This

is a structure deep within the brain that

is associated with pleasure and a sense

of reward and motivation. In contrast, in

people with a consistently negative out-

look, the nucleus accumbens is quiet and is

found to have few connections to the PFC.

As with much of the brains emotional

apparatus, the nucleus accumbens is notreachable through conscious thought

directly; you cant will it into greater

activity. However, Davidson believes

you can exploit its connections to the

PFC, which is accessible to conscious

targeting. The great strength of the

PFC is planning, imagining the future,

and exercising self-control. By putting

yourself in situations that demand fore-

thought, he says, you can strengthen the

PFC and thus its ability to goose activit y

in the nucleus accumbens. You mig

for instance, put yourself in a situat

where an immediate reward beckon

forbidden food usually works, thou

anything fun when youre supposed

be working would also be effective

and resist its siren call.

What are the limits of neuroplas

The honest answer is, we dont kno

when neuroscientists in the past sc

at the power of the brain to change

meaningful ways, such as to remap

cortex in order to restore mobility a

a stroke, they were oft en proved wr

One new study even shows that the

is plastic enough to change in respo

to cognitive demands that are as ne

to evolution as the industrial soot th

caused moths to evolve gray wing s

Earlier this year, scientists at Stanfo

pinpointed the anatomical coordin

of a brain region, a mere one-fifth o

inch across, that handles the sight o

numerals. Yes, the brain has specia

real estate to process the likes of 5 a

24. Since no one is born with the in

ability to recognize numerals, says

ford neuroscientist Josef Parvizi, idramatic demonstration of our brai

cuitrys capacity to change in resp

to education and culture.

If regular exposure to the 2+2s o

flash cards, signs for 99 specials in

windows, and the other digits in ou

world is sufficient to cause the brain

develop specialized circuitry, surel

are only in Act 1, Scene 1, of underst

ing the power of neuroplasticity and

to exploit it.

Meditation gives you t

wherewithal to paus

observe how easily

the mind can exaggera

the severity of a setba

and resist getting draw

into the abyss.

Richard Davidson

id/bod

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8/19

LIFE,LIBERTY

& THEPURSUIT

of

idfulCongressman Tim Ryan of Ohio

believes its time for Americans to find

quietfor their own well-being and

for the good of the country.

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Fom h n 2013 i of indfl mindfl.o

leadership


9/19

ldip

Its 95 degrees, I have sweat in my eyes, and Im

squinting at four women in brightly colored Spandex

tops and cropped pants.

Thats when I spot the guy who suggested I tr y

this yoga class.

The congressman has flipped his dog.

Hes turned his downward dog almost inside

outback bent, belly up.

The moment offers one answer to the central

question of this story: How does Representative

Tim Ryan truly live his mindfulness practice?

As I stick with downward dog, he looks like he

could hang out upside down all day, and t he more

I get to know him, its clear his steadiness is not

limited to the yoga mat.

Ryan, 39, is not one of those bomb-throwing

members of Congress, the type who generates

sensational headlines onHardball. No, hes not that

Ryan, the one who was on the Republican presi-

dential ticket. Hes the Democrat. The one who has

quietly continued winning races in his Ohio district.The one with that mindfulness t hing, as one of his

fellow members put it.

Ryans book,A Mindful Nation: How a Simple

Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Perfor-

mance, and Recapture the American Spirit , reads a bit

like what presidential candidates publish two years

before they start to show up at the Iowa State Fair,

full of broad statements like this one from the close:

Its helping us all recapture the spirit of what

it means to be an American. Join us.

But its also pretty simpletaking a mindfulness

approach to your life can make it better. And it can

make America better. Children can be smarter and

better prepared for the world. Soldiers and firefight-

ers can become more resilient. The book hasnt

generated the same buzz as the typical Washington

political tell-all, but its done what Ryan wanted:

its garnered him dozens of appearances across

the country to talk about mindfulness; its inspired

stadium where he played one football ga me before

I cashed it in.

As a teenager Ryan dreamed of being a pro quar-

terback, but a blown knee forced him to, as he puts

it, reconstruct my life. Hed already been exposed

to politics, working in then Representative James

Traficants district office and in his office on the

Hill. He got a law degree but never practiced, and

he was, as he describes it now, just floating around

thinking about what I ought to be doing.

Ryan considered coaching but kept coming back

to politics and a desire to offer leadership. He ran for

the state senate at age 26, a nd when Traficant land-

ed in jail, he ran for his old bosss seat in Congress.

His surprise victory in the primary made him the

youngest Democrat in Congress the following year.Pat Lowry, Ryans district press secretary and

longtime friend, isnt surprised at how his political

career has played out. Lowry tells me that in 1991

Ryan was named player of the year, and the next day

the coaches in the paper didnt talk about his abili-

ties, they talked about his leadership.

Now, hes a hometown hero.

We drove up bucolic Fifth Avenue, then off to his

neighborhood in Niles. His house is just down the way

from his moms. A little farther is the home where his

grandparents took care of him. Family is everything.

teachers, doctors, nurses, and veterans to contact

him about how theyre applying mindfulness prac-

tice in their lives; and the policy ideas in the book

may well be catching on in the halls of the Capitol.

And thats what Ryan is counting on this year, as

he steps up his efforts to translate mindfulness into

legislation.

During the time I spent with Ryan, in his home

state of Ohio and in Washington, I witnessed a poli-

tician whounlike many others Ive interviewed

hasnt adopted a cause because it does well with

focus groups. Hes adopted it because he believes it

will help our country. And from what Ive seen, this

guy isnt faking it.

Our journey began on a drizzly Friday, as I

drove with Ryan 319 miles from his Capitol Hill office

to Niles, Ohio. He sat in the front seat in shorts and

flip-flops with his shirt sleeves rolled up; looking like

he could have been on his way to a football game, notcoming from a congressional office. His aide, Merv

Jones, son of the late Representative Stephanie Tubbs

Jones of Ohio, was behind the wheel of the SUV.

Ryan describes his almost-daily meditation prac-

tice as classical: he sits on a cushion and follows

his breath, usually giving himself 40 t o 45 minutes

before a church-bell timer sounds on his phone.

He meditates at home in front of the fireplace or

in the House gym.

He says mindfulness practice gives him a feeling

of calm that allows him to ma nage his day, especial-

ly necessary in an increasingly bitter Washington.

If something arouses some anger, I try to see it , and

then let it go. As the days get hectic, I make myself

stop, take a breath, and pay attention to that breath,

Ryan says.

Among the practices Ryan highlights in his book

are waiting in the morning until youre fully out

of bed and stirring before looking at your email,

instead of reading it the moment you wake. And

no television before bed: I sleep bet ter.

Back to that question if hes for real. I decide to

tally how often he looks at his device. 1:10 p.m. is t he

first glance, and he pops off a quick text message. He

turns his eyes to t he screen about once an hour, and

at more frequent intervals as we get closer to home,

perhaps because were arranging to meet his family

at a festival.In all, Ryan looked at his iPhone only 13 times

during our more than 7 hours together. Meanwhile,

I was going through BlackBerry withdrawal, and

Merv didnt look like he was doing much bet ter.

As we pulled into Youngstown, Ohio, Ryan sat in

the front seat of the SUV, animated. He pointed out

new developments along the main drag, boasting

about the citys 80% commercial-occupancy rate.

Theres his great uncles house, the golf club where

he used to caddy, parts of his district added through

redistricting, and the Youngstown State University

His father left his mother when Ryan wa s ei

and the family became even more close-knit. A

boy, Ryan found their Catholic church to be a c

ing place. He smiles when he talks about his gr

parents peaceful home where he could always

them saying the rosary. They were early role m

for mindfulness. I always think about my gran

parents. They worked hard, but it wasnt every

thing, he says. They spent time in the garden

they celebrated birthdays, they went out danci

to big bands, they hosted parties and dinners.

We stopped at the churchs souped-up Italia

festival, which seemed more like a county fair.

walked only a few feet before someone called o

for Timmy. Everywhere we go he has roots. H

ushered me into the beer tent his gra ndfather to run. I didnt get to meet h is mom; her shift a

dried-baloney stand wasnt until t he following

We all ordered the Italian sausage Ryan say

the festival tradition. Eating like th is matters p

callynortheastern Ohios Italian and Portugu

roots are a distinctive part of the local culture.

Ryan taps into that easily; his family embodies

districts working-class demographic.

As I ate one of those giant sausages, Ryans

in-law was gabbing about how hed gotten them

into yoga. A discussion among his friends and

A indful Nation

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Fom h n 2013 i of indfl mindfl.o mindfl.o Fom h n 2013 i of


10/19

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family about a new hot yoga studio with Tuesday

and Thursday classes provoked high fives. Every

member of the family, a nd loosely defined extended

family, seemed attentive, in the moment, enjoying

each other.

As Ryans three nieces and two nephews ran

around, he would scoop one of them up and play the

role of doting uncle. It was obvious they adored him.

As Nicky and Dommy mounted the trapeze swings,

Ryan appeared laser-focused on their performances.

Go for it, Dom! he cheered.

Carrie Ryan beamed when I told her that during

our drive, her brother-in-law had sung her praises a s

a mindful person. The congressman had called her

super present, noting that she doesnt use email

outside of work. He told me shes a great mom.

Before hitting the dance floor with the kids, Al

Ryan shared his impression of his younger brother.

Hes always seeing the good in people, and hes

able to stay centered with an understanding of what

you can control and what you cant. Its just howhes built.

The central tenet of Ryans philosophy may be

gaining some traction these days, but in Washing-

ton, a city many Americans t hink of as toxic, and

with partisan rancor and discord at historic highs,

its a surprising message to hear from a politician.

In January, Ryan sent out a Dear Colleague mes-

sage announcing weekly all-are-welcome medita-

tion meetings from 9:30 to 10 a.m. each Wednesday

the House is in session. About 30 staffers attended

the inaugural session in the Rayburn House Office

Building. Its a nice little technique for people in a

high-stress environment to learn. Theres no belief

structure you need to sign on to, and everyone

can benefit from having a quiet space for 10 to 15

minutes during a hectic week, Ryan told the Capitol

Hill newspaper and website,Roll Call. Ryan has

also invited his colleagues to join him for a half-

hour quiet time before the first vote each week,

in a room near the House chamber in the Capitol.

Members can use that time in whatever way they

likea specific religious contemplation, mindful-

ness, or just silent reflection, he says.

I ask Ryan if he worries that his push for mind-

fulness could make his colleagues take him less

seriously. I probably should worry, he admits,

but adds that he has t he backing of the Ma rines,

science, Google, and Phil Jacksonthe coach who

won the most NBA championships. The congress-

man senses an openness now that wasnt there five

years ago, because every body feels overwhelming

stress in their lives and they dont know what

to do about it.

Now that his colleagues know what hes up to,

Ryan can move beyond t he occasional mention of

mindfulness in committee hearings. He plans to

take advantage of open floor time available to mem-

bers and enjoyed by C-SPAN viewers to get into thescience of mindfulness and explain in detail the leg-

islation hes crafting. That could be a bill supporting

mindfulness teacher training or carving out space

for stress reduction in health care, military, and

veterans programs. The legislation will be written

in consultation with experts in each field.

Ryan is deeply concerned that he sees so many

veterans ending up in the obit sections of the news-

papers in my state, h aving committed suicide. He

thinks its a supreme tragedy when people so highly

trained, whom so many people look up to, take their

own lives. Hes conceptualizing a sort of veterans

corps that would help returning serv ice members

by teaching them yoga and meditation. It would be

led by veterans in individual communities, allow-

ing those who want to participate to avoid having to

work through the department of Veterans Affairs.

Many veterans wont go to the VA for fear of being

diagnosed with post-traumatic stress. They dont

want the stigma.

Of course, in Washington these days it is hard to

pass any piece of legislation, no matter how badly it

is needed, and Ryan admits hes frustrated. But he

notes that the president or first lady could accom-

plish a lot even without legislation.

The mindfulness agenda cuts through a lot

of the current political divides. Because it is based

on self-care, preventing illness, and increasing youroverall well-being, it saves health-care dollars and

promotes individual responsibility, Ryan says.

He also believes it can be a key element in job

retraining. Mindfulness increases a workers

resiliency and creativity in the face of challenges,

her ability to change what shes doing if she has

to respond to economic realities. We need that in

todays economy.

Ryan doesnt want to out other members of Con-

gress who have been joining him for meditation in

the House gym or his colleaguesDemocrats and

Republicanswho tell him theyve read his book

and agree with its ideas. So I wont name na mes.

But lets just say the politicians starting to see his

point of view, and even engaging in deep breathing,

are plentiful. They know stress when they see it,

and theyve had enough.

Ryan sees his own role as cultivating interest in

mindfulness practice over time. When Republicans

tell him they do yoga, he listens and invites them

to join him. Or he suggests they drop by the weekly

meditation session in Rayburn.

With the support of h is congressional colleague

Jared Polis (D-CO), the Mediators Foundation,

which encourages leaders to work for a peaceful,

just, and sustainable world, sent every member on

Capitol Hill a copy ofA Mindful Nation. Ryan wisheshe could have convinced the Republicans who have

read it to write a blurb for the paperback edition

thats just come out.

I ask if he tries to pitch his mindfulness agenda

when he senses a lawmaker who is open to the

idea. Not right away, Ryan says. I want them to

understand mindfulness on a very personal level

and experience it themselves, then they will under-

stand why I am pushing legislation and why its

important.

Months later, were talking about guns in th

wake of a new tragedythe mass shooting in N

town, Connecticut. Ryan believes the nation ha

opportunity to take a fresh look at mental heal

The experts tell us we need to prevent mental

illness by intervening as early as possible, he s

Part of the prevention we could maybe agree o

social and emotional learning programs and a

bit of mindfulness practice in the schools.

Ryans Appropriations Subcommittee on Ed

tion has directed nearly $1 million to schools in

district for a study to evaluate the effectivenes

mindfulness and social and emotional learning

known to educators as SEL.

He has been told that when mindfulness is t

in an educational setting, behaviors such as puon the playground are less frequent and fewer

are sent to the principals office. Instead, they s

the peace corner when they act up. His aim?

dardizing the practice so its part of the f undam

tals of being a teacher. He argues, too, that sch

can use meditation as a recruiting tool because

statistics prove its effectiveness.

This brings us to a discussion of how Ryan

ended up practicing mindfulness. I was alway

interested in trying to figure out how to disciplin

mind, calm my mind down, and be in a peacef

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Children in America deserve every

opportunity to ully develop their

talentsand I know thats what their

parents want, because they talk to me

about it all the time. For the uture o

our country, its essential that we teach

the whole child. A young child who can

regulate his emotions is a child who will

do better in school. Why not teach all o

our children simple, tremendously pow-

erul techniques to help increase theircapacity to learn and regulate their own

emotions. We dont need more gadgets

or fly-by-night programs in our school

systems. I we teach children to ollow

their breathand return to it when they

get distractedwe are teaching them

how to concentrate. Over time they

will increase their ability to mobilize

their attention.

For a very small investment, we can

prevent incredible uture costs and heart-

aches in our communities. How much

will we save in preventing substance

abuse? How much depression will be

prevented because these kids will be able

to discuss their problems with each other?

How many teen suicides will be prevented

because ewer children will eel isolated

and alone? We are a compassionate coun-

try. We are a smart country. Methods to

cultivate mindulness need to be reflected

in our curriculum.

Mindulness can have great benefits

or our children, but it can also help us

be better parents. I you bring a touch o

mindulness to parenting, you may notice

youre less inclined to immediately reactnegatively to something your child has

done. I your stress level is decreased a

bit, you may be less likely to cause an

emotionally charged situation to spin out

o control. I you can slow down a bit, you

may find yoursel appreciating the ree-

spiritedness and curious nature o your

child more ofen. I youre paying closer

attention and listening more deeply, you

may notice your kids being more willing

to open up to you. You may find yoursel

being more affectionate to them, and this

may make them more affectionate toward

you. Practicing mindulness or a ew

weeks wont turn someone into a perect

parent. But i we slow down and reduce

our own stress, it may make home lie

noticeably calmer and more har monious.

Growing up, I remember two phrases

being drilled into my head rom my mom,

the nuns, and the other teachers: Pay At-

tention! and Be Nice! Well, the most rus-

trating part o hearing that was that no

one ever showed us how to pay attention!

Its not something you do automatically.

It needs to be taught and practiced. It

reminds me o watching young childrentry to play baseball or the first time. Even

i they can hit the ball, they immediately

run or third base. Until someone shows

them how to get to first base, they cant

play the game. So it is with paying atten-

tion. We have an obligation to do all we

can or our children. Lets make our kids

aware o the deep inner resources and re-

silience they possess. Lets develop their

capacity to think and to care about each

other and to know themselves better.

Adptd oA indful Nation: How a Simple

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place, he says, referring to his earlier days as an

athlete. My mind was very active a nd it was hard

for me to focus. I would stay out and shoot baskets

in the driveway. Id shoot a million t imes, just me

and a ball and a hoop. Sometimes it was a football

through a tire in the front yard.

In spite of his commitment to discipline and repu-

tation for leadership, I still felt a nagging inability

to really be present, says Ryan. It wasnt until a five-

day silent retreat after the 2008 presidential election,

with Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness-

Based Stress Reduction, that he found a way to

decrease stress and stay in the moment more often.

After that intense election campaign, I was burned

out, so I signed up for this retreat, t urned in my two

BlackBerrys at the door, and sat quietly and walkedattentively. Its when I discovered how effective

this method could be. If it worked for me, I thought,

it ought to work for others. I also began to realize

that its another version of the same old thing I had

always been drawn to: discipline. But now it was

discipline not just of the body but also of the mind.

Ryan mentions running the Cleveland marathon,

where he raised $5,000 to help returning troops

learn mindfulness to aid their transition to everyday

life. Under sunny skies, the temperature hit the mid-

80s in 80% humidity. Talk about mindfulness,

he says, laughing. The bombardment of negat

thoughts toward the end was almost overwhel

ing: Im stupid, I hurt, look at that big hill, why d

I do this? But you have to keep going back to y

breath. You can think about how hot it is or yo

can hydrate and keep going.

Ryan staffers say hes encouraged them to be

mindful, too. One says the congressman convinc

him to stop using his iPhone as an alarm. And th

or four often come to the weekly mindfulness se

in Rayburn. Former Representative John Sulliv

Oklahoma, a Republican, isnt shy about how Ry

has influenced him for the better. They were c

chairmen of the Addiction Caucus (Ryan took o

the helm at former Rep. Patrick Kennedys requ

with the agreement he could push mindfulnessand frequently met in the House gym to medita

Tim convinced me to try it and it was nothin

I thought it would be. I really liked it, says Sull

It even helped him cope with the surprise of los

his seat to a Tea Party activist in a 2012 primary

Sullivan predicts Ryan will useA Mindful N

to demonstrate the benefits across governmen

Hes the person who can bring new light to th

he says. A guy like him who is charismatic, he

going to be able to take this book to a level that

show so many benefits.

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Ryan, naturally, agrees. Republicans will see a

lot of people in the suburban districts who do yogaand meditate, and not all of these a re Democrats,

he says. Republican parents are likely to be just as

pleased if their kids learn to have better att ention

spans. If its only a bunch of liberals talking about

meditation in schools, its not going to work. Its got

to be mainstream and bipartisan.

As he steps up his national profile, Ryan has been

wrestling with a career choice based in part on how

he can make the most difference putting mindful-

ness into practice. Does he run statewide in Ohio or

stay in Congress and exert influence through spend-

ing bills as an Appropriations Committee member?

The ability to transform the way we run our gov-

ernment and implement programs at the state level

is appealing, Ryan tells me in January, just after

former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland announced he

would not seek a rematch with the Republican who

unseated him in 2014. Ryan has made no secret of

the fact that hes interested in a gubernatorial bid,

but is the timing right?

As governor, youre basically the superintendent

of all the schools, Ryan says. Not to mention over-

seeing the prison system, state Medicaid programs,

and the colleges and universities. Its a chance to

make big changes quickly. He doesnt say th is, but

state executives also tend to run for president.Another option is to inch slowly ahe ad in the

House, where power lies in seniority. That could mean

moving up on Defense Appropriations and getting the

Pentagon to do the research that will build a body

of evidence for how mindfulness training programs

can increase health, well-being, and resiliency.

As he faces these decisions, Ryan says he wants

to make the best choice for advancing mindfulness.

Mindfulness training makes a valuable investment in

the most important asset we havewell-functioning

human beings. My goal is to be the person who gets

it implemented in current programming, he tells

me. But, he admits, the congressional track

is a lot more long-term.

Either strategy carries risks: he could lose at

home running for governor and find himself in the

political wilderness or his party could remain in

the minority in the House and he could find him-

self bordering on irrelevance. On March 15, Rya n

announced that he had decided to forgo a run for

governor. For now.

All of the people I talked to describe Ryan

as someone who doesnt appear to h ave extremes.

Hes the one guy who never gets stressed in our

office. He absorbs it all and tells us what he wants

to do, says Wiley Runnestrand, his campaign

manager.

When I began this profile, Ryan was spending

his weekends back home campaigning for his pals

in Congress who needed more help tha n he did forre-election. He helped boost turnout in northern Ohio

for President Obama and was sent back to Washington

for a sixth term by a nearly 150,000-vote margin.

The day after the Italian festival in Niles,

we picked Ryan up at his girlfriends house so he

could headline the opening of the presidents local

campaign office. As Ryan stepped in front of a few

hundred Obama supporters, he apologized for his

flip-flops and shorts: Im a litt le underdressed, but

Im going to my nieces birthday party, which we all

know is a little more important.

Suddenly it was as if he had flipped a switch.

He spoke the first overtly political words Id heard

since we met in the car 24 hours prior, and he knew

what he was doing. He urged the volunteers to

get out and draw this distinction between what

Romney stands for and what President Obama has

already done. That included the auto industry ba il-

out, a central issue in Ohio, and the fact t hat Osama

bin Laden is no longer around. Ryan told the group:

This guy has done a lot of what hes promised.

When we parted ways outside the Obama cam-

paign office, Ryan recommended I try hot yoga.

He started it to strengthen his back and goes a few

times a week. He said hed be there on Monday

night, and when I show up for the 7:45 class, t heres

Ryan in the front corner. Merv is there, too.

I take the opportunity afterward to ask the classinstructor, Derek Waddy, some questions about the

congressman. His alignment? Perfect, hes doing

a great job. Does Ryan do headstands? Jurys still

out. Does anyone in the class know they are t rying

to hold eagle pose next t o someone who belongs to a

club so exclusive it has just 535 members?

You know, Waddy says, when youre in there

all sweaty, youre all the same.

My goal is to get us

to invest more in thmost important ass

we have in America

well-functioning

human beings.

tl it

o To

d (D-A)

bo t l-ou

io o quit

ti pio to t

fit vot.

iti Blltoi i politi dito t PB NHou.

Fom h n 2013 i of indfl mindfl.oIf ou lid ti til, viit

o ubib to idful >>PIN


14/19


ldip

Its easy to get caught up in a swirl o thoughts

and worries. But what we really need as leaders

is continual attention to detail and to the needs

o others while still appreciating the big picture.

Janice Marturano, ormer vice president

at General Mills, shows us how its possible

to find the space to lead.

Illion b Andw Bnn

fi

ndi

ngthe

toleadspace


15/19


ldip


Leading people is one of the most chal lenging

roles we can take on in life. It requires a dizzy ing

array of skills, a strong education, and passion. Most

often, when we t ake on a leadership role, we do so

because we want to make a difference. As leaders,

we take for granted that we will work long hours,

make great sacrifices, and ride t he roller coaster

of success and failure. However, the busyness t hat

accompanies being a leader in todays 24/7/365

interconnected world often distracts us from what s

important and limits our ability to lead with excel-

lence. When we are really honest with ourselves, we

may have to admit that there are far too many times

when we feel as though were spending the day

putting out fires and wasting time rather t han doing

our best work.

Does it need to be this way? Happily, the answer

is no.

You can learn to lead with excellence by culti-vating your innate capabilities to focus on what is

important, to see more clearly what is presenting

itself, to foster greater creativity, and to embody

compassion. When you are able to do so, you a re

much more likely to make the conscious choices we

need our leaders to make. These choices often lead

to a win-win-win scenario: good for the organi-

zation, good for the employees, and good for the

community.

Wh Do W Ndindfl Ldhip?

To answer that question, lets begin with a look at

what it means to be mindful.

When you are mindful of this moment, you are

present for your life and your experience just as it is

not as you hoped it would be

not as you expected it to be

not seeing more or less than what is here

not with judgments that can lead you to a condi-

tioned reaction

but for exactly what is here, as it unfolds, meet-

ing each moment with equanimity.

As we consider the challenges leaders face today,

its relatively easy to see how much we need tocultivate mindful leadership. The environment we

live and work in is constantly evolving. Time is now

often measured in internet microseconds. There

are new and complex economic and resource con-

straints on our organizations. We are attached 24/7

to an array of technological devices that regularly

generate anxiety-producing information overload

and a sense of disconnection that can overwhelm

and isolate us. The world is changing so rapidly

that people training for a career today may find

their career path radically altered by the time they

are ready to enter it. One paradigm after a nother is

shifting. The volume of information at our disposal

is, in fact, leading to less rather than more certainty.

The number of voices and opinions we can hear on

any given issue is so dauntingly large that we often

dont know who or what to believe or follow.

It is also true, though, that these tumultu-

ous times can offer great opportunity and ample

possibilities for innovation, as the world becomes

smaller and we begin to see the potential to meet

the complexities of the day in ways that are truly

creative, productive, and compassionate. Its a t ime

to take leadership, and to redefine what it means to

lead with excellence.

In my own experiences, first as a Wall Street

associate, a community volunteer, an employee in

three large organizations, and an officer of a Fortune200 company for fifteen years, and then in the work

I have done in offering mindful leadership training

to leaders from around the world, Ive consistently

found that the best leaders qualities go far beyond

getting the job done. The best leaders are women

and men who have first-class training, bright minds,

warm hearts, a passionate embrace of their mission,

a strong connection to their colleagues and com-

munities, and the courage to be open to what is

here. Theyre driven to excellence, innovation, and

making a difference.

You can learn to lead with

excellence by cultivating

your innate capabilities to

focus on what is important.

When you listened for

your responses to the

reflection questions, you

might have noticed that they

did not include too many

o the typical measures o

organizational leadership. Forexample, you probably did

not put consistently makes

his quarterly numbers as the

reason you admire the person

as someone who leads with

excellence. Rather, your list

might have included some o

the qualities named by other

leaders who have explored this

reflection with me:

Respectful

Open thinker

Compassionate

Clear vision

Able to inspire

Great listener

Creative

Patient

Collaborative

Kind

Teacher

Its not that hitting the

quarterly numbers isnt

important; it is. What sets

people apart as leaders,

however, is something muchbigger than quantitative

metrics. The people we call

to mind in this reflection have

touched us, inspired us, and

made us eel their leadership.

The qualities can be rolled

up into just two capacities

o leadership excellence,

and these two capacities are

embodied by those we identiy

as leading with excellence.

Ability of a leader to

connectto sel, to othe

and to the larger commu

Connecting to self is how

stay connected to our val

and our ethics. Its the ru

we steer with in the midstthe chaos. How deeply w

able to connect authentic

with others is the differen

between an organization

environment that values

inclusion and one that is

and divided into silos tha

communicate with each o

Connecting to the comm

comes rom being able to

the bigger picture and no

get caught up in the minu

o a single objective. Tha

wider connection is how

organizations give mean

their existence and inspir

employees.

1

2

Ability of a leader to

skillfully initiate or gui

change. The important w

is skillfullyleading not b

command and control bu

collaborating and listenin

with open curiosity anda willingness, at times, to

live within ambiguity unti

decision becomes clear.

also this capacity that ue

leaders willingness to ta

courageous stand, lead t

organization or industry

new arenas, and accept

as experiments rom whic

to learn.

From Findingthe Space toLead

PRACTICE

Begin by sitting comfortably and closing

your eyes. Notice the sensations of

your breath. Allow your mind to let go of

distractions.

When youre ready, bring to mind a

person you believe embodies leadership

excellence. This could be someone you

know personally or a leader you have

read about. Allowing yourself some time

to let the answers arise, ask yourself the

following questions:

Why did this person come to mind?

What is it about this persons leadership

that made you think of him or her when

asked about leadership excellence?

Be patient; hold the question in your mind

with a sense of openness and curiosity.

You dont need to overthink the question.

Set aside the first answer or two to see

if more qualities emerge. As you open

your eyes, you may find it helpful to write

your answers on a piece of paper before

reading further.

flin

on Exlln

Janice Marturanois the ounder o the

Institute or Mindul Leadership and a

certified mindulness teacher.

Taking note of the qualities exhibited by

leaders we admire can help all of us pinpoint

how to become better leaders ourselves.


16/19

ld


Wh Exl I indfl Ld?

A mindful leader embodies leadership presence b

cultivating focus, clarity, creativity, and compas

in the service of others.

Leadership presence is a tangible quality. It

requires full and complete nonjudgmental atte

in the present moment. Those around a mindfu

leader see and feel that presence.

A friend of mine decided to attend a local ra

see if he could get an important healthca re que

answered by presidential candidate Bill Clinto

Of course, when he arrived, he faced a teeming

screaming crowd, but he maneuvered his way

police barricade and waited. Clinton soon arriv

and began walking along the barricade shaking

hands. As my friend stretched out his hand a nd

Clinton took it, he yelled out his question. In thmoment, the candidate stopped, faced him, and

responded to the question. Later my friend told

In those few moments when we spoke togethe

seemed as though Clinton had nothing else on

mind. It was as if there was no other person th

He felt heard and respected. Thats leadership

presence: you give your full attention to what y

doing, and others know it.

Leadership presence is powerful. In your ow

life, you can probably recall times when you ex

rienced leadership presence, either in yourself

someone else. It might have been in a one-on-o

conversation, or it might have been in an audie

filled with people. Presence can be felt even fro

far away.

You can undoubtedly recall the much more

common experiences when you feel only partia

in the room, or you feel the person youre spea

with is not really there. Like a ll of us, even whe

you have every intention to be focused, your m

becomes easily distractedthinking about the

or the future, and only part ially in the present

all. In those moments, you are not embodying t

innate capacity everyone possesses to be prese

Why is that? What do we know about being pr

As a beginning, you might recall a moment

you experienced full awareness in a situation.

there seemed to be nothing else but whatever ywere noticing. This might have been a momen

moment like the birth of your child. In that mo

time seemed to stand still, a nd nothing else ex

but the warmth of that miraculous being softly

sleeping in your arms. You were not distracted

the to-do list or the noises in the hall. Your full

attentionmind, body, and heartwas comple

absorbed in that moment.

Or it might have been an ordinary moment,

kind often overlooked and not particularly cele

brated. You may have lingered to notice a suns

Leadership presence is

not only critical for us as

individuals but also has a

ripple effect on those around

us: the community we live in,

and potentially the world.

Yet time and again, they feel as though their capa-

bilities and their leadership training are inadequate.

They tell me that even as they execute well and meet

the quarterly goals, they simply do not feel they are

living their best livesat work or at home. They feel

something is missing. But what?

The most frequent answer is:

Space

We often simply do not have the space, the

breathing room, necessary to be clear and focused,

and to listen deeply to ourselves and to others. How

can we expect to generate the connections with our

colleagues and communities that we need when

we are so busy that all we can really do is check off

boxes, squeeze in a perfunctory hello to our cowork-

ers, and get through the days meetings and calls?

Can we realistically expect leadership excellence

when we spend whole days on autopilotlookingat our watches and wondering where the day went,

looking at the calendar and wondering how it could

be spring when just yesterday it was Thanksgiving?

Whether our leadership affects millions, hun-

dreds, or a handful, we can no longer afford to be

on autopilot in our lives, with our families, or in

our organizations. We can no longer afford to miss

the connections with those we work with, t hose we

love, and those we serve. We can no longer make

decisions with distracted minds, reacting instead

of responding or initiating. We can no longer lose

touch with what motivated us to lead in the first

place. We need mindful leadership to lead with

excellence.

So far we have been exploring the need to be

present for leadership roles in t he workplace. There

is an equally, or perhaps more, important need to be

present for your leadership roles in your personal

life. Excellence involves making conscious choices

about not just how you work but how you live your

life and how you connect with your family, friends,

and community. We need mindful leadership to live

with excellence.


17/19


ld


Perhaps you recall that it stopped you dead in your

tracks and held you in its beauty, all of you, for what

seemed like forever but in clock time m ight have

been just a couple of seconds. In those seconds, you

became aware of the shades of pink and orange,

the intricate play of light and shadow, your bodys

absorption of the waning energy of nature, and

the feeling of belonging to something bigger than

yourself.

Maybe you were at the coffee shop in the morn-

ing, your mind racing through the details of the

upcoming day, and you looked up f rom your coffee

and actually noticed a piece of art on the wall or

the warm, comforting aroma of the shop. Whatever

it was, it interrupted the busy mind, and you were

living that moment of your life more fully.

Such momentswhen we fully inhabit our bodies

and our senses are at work on more than an internal

storyline, checklist, or rehearsed conversationare

what give life true meaning. Beyond that, for those

of us who hold positions of influence, the ability tobe present, to embody leadership presence, is not

only critical for us as individuals, but it also ha s

a ripple effect on those around us: our families

and friends, the organization we work within, the

community we live in, and potentially the world

at large. Just as a pebble thrown into a st ill pond

can create ripples spreading throughout the whole

of the pond, so too can the cultivation of leadership

presence go far beyond the effect it has on us alone.

When the Institute for Mindful Leadership

works with an organization to bring mindful

leadership training to its employees, we witness an

example of the ripple effect. We often start with

retreats or courses for the more senior leaders, and

as the training begins to change how they lead,

those around them notice the change and soon ask

to enroll in the training as well. Its not unusual to

hear people tell stories of the transformation they

noticed in their manager. As leaders we know that

we often underestimate the impact, for better or

worse, that we have on those around us. When we

are present and engaged, the effect is very different

from when we are distracted and on autopilot. But it

isnt enough to want to be more present, to want to

have a positive ripple effect. We need to train

the mind.The work of developing leadership presence

through mindfulness begins by recognizing how

much time we spend in a mental state that has come

to be called continuous partial attention. If youre

like most of us, you probably take pride in your abil-

ity to multitask, to be incredibly efficient by simulta-

neously listening to a conference call, writing a few

emails, and eating your salad at your desk.

Sound familiar to you? And yet, when you were

listening in on the call, did you actually hea r

anything? Did you share your best thinking in the

emails? Did you enjoy your lunch, or even notice

you ate it?

Perhaps one of my most memorable lessons about

the cost of multitasking came early one morning

as I sat at my desk, getting t hings ready for a day

filled with meetings and reviewing the latest emails.

One of the messages that morning came from my

husband, who was forwarding a message from my

daughters teacher. It was asking us to choose one

of the available parent-teacher conference slots

on her calendar, and my husband wanted to know

which one I wanted before he replied. I wrote to my

husband, Thursday at 10 would be great. Love you

forever, thanks for last night. Fine. Except that in

my haste and partial at tention, I wrote those words

to my daughters teacher. Needless to say, when I

finally realized what happened, it became a momentto remember.

A few moments of people-watching in the hall-

ways at work or on the sidewalk in front of your

building can also give you a taste of the disconnec-

tion that results f rom multitasking. Youll notice

people texting and checking email as they walk,

barely avoiding walking into walls and each other.

It has even become acceptable to do this while

walkingand supposedly having a conversation

with someone else. Once upon a time, this would

have been considered rude. Putting manners a side,

Most o us spend a great

deal o time sitting behind

our desks, or in conerence

rooms or colleagues offices,

so having a short practice that

helps you relax while at work

can be beneficial. What I call

the desk chair meditation gives

you a way to incorporate a

short mindulness practice into

your day.

You may need to be creative

to find the quiet place. Many

people have told me thattheyre best able to do this

practice by first leaving their

office and finding an empty

conerence room, or even

leaving the building to sit in

their car during part o their

lunch break. The desk chair

part need not be taken literally.

This meditation can be done

anywhere you are able to sit

quietly and practice, even an

airplane seat.

di ih

Wh Yo A

The main part o this

practice involves whats called

a body scan, which is very

simple to do.

Begin by bringing your

attention to the sensations o

your breath. When youre ready,

direct your attention to the

soles o your eet, opening your

mind to whatever sensations

are there to be noticed.

Perhaps you are noticing the

pressure on the soles o your

eet as the weight o your legsrests on them. Perhaps the

soles o your eet eel warm or

cool. Just notice. No need to

judge or engage in discursive

thinking. I your mind is pulled

away or wanders, redirec

mindful freemium

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